Pearl Harbor Battleship honored on Dec. 7 (USS Oklahoma)

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 12/6/04 | Jaymes Song - AP

[NormsRevenge]

HONOLULU (AP) - Sixty-three years after the sneak attack that plunged the United States into World War II, hundreds of men who died aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma are finally getting their own special tribute.

A new exhibit of photos, artifacts and oral histories was being unveiled Monday to honor the 429 men from the Oklahoma who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack. That is the second-highest number of Pearl Harbor casualties behind the USS Arizona, where most of its 1,177 killed crewmen remain entombed.

The anniversary also will be marked with simultaneous ceremonies Tuesday aboard the Arizona Memorial above that sunken battleship, and on shore at the National Park Service's visitors center. Each ceremony was to feature a silence pause at 7:55 a.m. - the minute the attack started.

While the better-known Arizona has a gleaming white memorial straddling its hull, the Oklahoma has gone largely unrecognized over the years.

On Monday, Paul Goodyear, head of the USS Oklahoma Survivors Association, and five other survivors were to join Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma at the exhibit's unveiling at the Pearl museum and visitors center.

Goodyear, who organizes an annual USS Oklahoma reunion, had lobbied for the exhibit at the Oklahoma state capitol earlier this year.

"The youngest of our survivors is already 80," he said then. "If we don't do this now, these men will be completely forgotten. Is that the way we thank them for their supreme sacrifice they made for this country?"

When it sank, the Oklahoma was anchored off Ford Island on Battleship Row in the middle of the harbor, next to the USS Maryland. The Oklahoma took the brunt of the torpedoes, leaving the Maryland relatively intact.

The Oklahoma was refloated in 1943 and sold for scrap after the war, but it sank in the Pacific while being towed to California.

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and other military bases on Oahu lasted two hours. Twenty-one ships were heavily damaged, and 320 aircraft were damaged or destroyed. In all, about 2,390 people were killed and about 1,178 were wounded, according to the National Park Service, which maintains the Arizona site.

[VOA]

RE: Ward and Flaherty
When it was seen that the U.S.S. Oklahoma was going to capsize and the order was given
to abandon ship, Ward remained in a turret holding a flashlight so the remainder
of the turret crew could see to escape, thereby sacrificing his own life.

Ironic that our domestic liberals/Democrats/Socialists don't often mention
that the Congressional Medal of Honor is occassionally handed out to someone
who didn't hold a rifle or a pistol...

[StoneColdGOP]

The California's bell hangs at a memorial on the grounds of the Capitol in Sacramento.

[VOA]

Thanks for the info on the bell from the California.
I'll look for it if I ever make it to Sacramento.

The Time-Life Pearl Harbor commemorative publication I mentioned in a previous post...
had a color photo of the tattered flag rescued from the California on the back cover.

[tanknetter]

During the attack, the Japs thought it was a front line battleship and attacked.

Actually, my understanding is that the wood timbers mounted on Utah's decks, plus her being positioned in what was usually a carrier berth, led the attacking Japanese to think she was a CV (Yamamoto's priority targets on 12/7/41).

There's at least one sketch out there, drawn by a Japanese pilot during the attack, indicating that a US carrier (Lexington Class) had been attacked and sunk ... even though no US carrier was in Pearl that morning.

[skeeter]

Try this one: http://www.ussoklahoma.com/

[VOA]

Thanks for the link...I'll have to check it out more (back to work, don't cha' know!)

[TXnMA]

Fascinating -- and quite logical...

[VOA]

evening bump

[sasportas]

I went to your USS Oklahoma link. I have often wondered what it was like to have been caught like those sailors were. I sensed the horror reading their accounts. Here from your link:

Quickly the water flooded in. We were buffeted about, twisted and turned by its strength. Then the dark waters closed over me as the ship came to rest- upside down on the bottom of the harbor.

Quickly the water flooded in. We were buffeted about, twisted and turned by its strength. Then the dark waters closed over me as the ship came to rest- upside down on the bottom of the harbor.

When the ship turned over, the water came in the vents through the whole ship. The deck became the overhead, it just put us in an upside down position. It took all your senses to figure out where you were.

About ten minutes after the attack started (the lights went out). We were in there for about 36 hours. We lost track of time.

There were bodies in the water, debris, and you were standing on the ceiling on the pipes, with the deck above your head. Talk about disorientation.

I touched my face and didn't know my hand was there until it touched, it was that dark...I felt around there and couldn't feel any opening… So I just waited there, I don't know how long, four, five or maybe six hours.

Tapping was heard from inside the ship up through December 10th, but they were trapped below the water line. Rescue was impossible and they slowly suffocated.

[skeeter]

I can't imagine that kind of terror.